West Zone Playoff - 1st Leg: Hilal Alquds 2-1 Al Nasr
5th February 2019
West Bank: Palestine's Hilal Alquds defeated Oman's Al Nasr in their 2019 AFC Cup West Zone Playoff first leg tie at the Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium on Tuesday.
Hilal Alquds will fancy their chances of advancing to the group stage when they travel to Salalah Sports Complex for the return leg on February 12 but the away goal for Al Nasr will give them hope.
Both teams were equally matched in the opening minutes of the game but it was Al Nasr who has the first look at goal in the seventh minute but Dejan Djermanovic pulled his header wide off the mark.
Hilal Al Quds finally found their rhythm and came close to breaking the deadlock 12 minutes later through Samer Jondi’s effort from the top of the box but Al Nasr goalkeeper Ahmed Al Rawahi was quick to react.
Despite creating numerous goal scoring chances, neither side could find a breakthrough as the tie remained goalless at half-time.
Hilal Al Quds started the second half with purpose and broke the deadlock in the 51st minute with Oday Ibrahim Dabbagh finishing his surging run down the middle by unleashing a low drive into the bottom right corner.
Mousa Farawi then doubled Hilal Al Quds’ advantage three minutes later with a long-range strike that had Al Rawahi well beaten.
Al Nasr refused to give up and pulled one back through Ahmad Alzugheir's stunning free-kick in the 64th minute to leave the tie finely balanced going into next week's return leg.Source: the-afc.com